It's The End Of The World As We Know It... Or Is It?

With 2012 right around the corner, and a movie of the same name having just released, and all the talk about the alleged end of the world and what it will look like, that line, from a 1998 R.E.M. song seems very appropriate.

I watched the movie “2012” last night at the prompting of a friend (who said she had heard it was pretty good — she wasn’t all the way right) and had a lot of thoughts about it. It was, no doubt, an epic movie. All kinds of special effects and a decent idea concerning the why and how the world would end, yet it was definitely predictable and cliche at times. It was also a little heavy to see masses of people dying at the same time. Granted, we saw that in the previews, but you just didn’t think about it like that, right? Somehow, in the midst or watching buildings collapse as the plane flies through the debris, we forget that inside those buildings were hundreds, if not thousands of people, who lost their lives in a split second. They were mothers, fathers, sons, nieces, uncles, and sisters. And, at the most basic level, they were people. The loss of a human life is always a tragedy.

Read: How To Survive The End Of The World According To The Movie “2012″

Let’s look at the basic idea behind the movie: the idea that December 21st, 2012, is the day that the Mayan civilization picked for the world, as we know it, to come to an end. Huh? How did they know this? Personally, I don’t trust the Mayans. I put no stock in the fact that they were able to predict the world’s self destruction thousands of years ago. Perhaps it’s because my belief in the Bible and it’s truth, when, in Matthew 24:36, Jesus tells us that, “no one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father,” seems to make more sense to me than the idea that a civilization that didn’t have any modern technology predicting the date — not the year, or the decade, or even the month, but the day — that the world would end. But maybe not. Maybe the Mayan prediction is more viable than the Biblical truth. Probably not.

The thing that gets me the most is the Christians that believe this whole “Doomsday prophecy” idea that speculates the specific dates. If I say I’m a Christian, and I, subsequently proclaim to believe the Bible, and what it teaches me, how can I also ascribe to the belief that the Mayans were right, even though that’s in direct contradiction to the scriptures? I may, perhaps, not believe the Bible as much as I allege. If the angels, and even the Son of God don’t know when He’ll return, why would I believe that the Mayans got some kind of inside track? Did they find something that the rest of humanity has missed? I find that harder to believe than anything that’s written in the Bible.

But say, by some incredibly absurd chance, the Mayans are right. We have 3 years until the world falls apart on itself. The question now becomes: What have you done with your life? Have you utilized the gifts, talents, experiences and callings that God has placed in and on you for His glory? Or have you just been sitting around waiting to get married before you do anything great for God? (Oh, sorry, I meant to say… No, that’s exactly what I meant to say).

I don’t know about you, but personally, I don’t want to know the day the world will end. Instead, I want to live each day like it’s my last, that way, if it is, I’m ready.

What do you think? Were the Mayans right? Would you want to know the day that the world was alleged to end? How would that change what you do day-to-day?